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Nicolau Nasoni died on this day in 1763 (b. on 2 June 1691, in San Giovanni Valdano di Sopra, Florence, Italy). Nasoni worked in Siena (1715-1720), in Rome and later in Malta.

An invitation of Jerónimo de Távora e Noronha, the Dean of Porto, Portugal, whose brother Roque de Távora, he had met in Malta, brought Nasoni to Porto in 1723 (or 1725 ?), where he would remain till his death in 1773 at Porto. His first recorded works in Porto were frescoes on the walls of the cathedral in 1725, which are now fading.

Actually, Nicolau Nasoni began his artistic life mainly as a painter but he also created various ephemeral architecture works that granted him some notoriety in Sienna. Engaged to paint Porto’s Cathedral, Nasoni would soon become a sublime architect, perhaps stimulated by the magnificence and scenery virtues of the northern granite.

After to have accepted the responsibility for the blueprint and construction of the church that the Clérigos Bortherhood, a result of the fusion of the three Brotherhoods, intended to hoist in the city of Porto, he wouldn't leave anymore this beautiful Portuguese city which he found a medieval town and converted into one of the most Baroque of the Portuguese cities.

He became during the 18th century one of the most influential figures in Portuguese Baroque architecture for introducing his original and vigorous and theatrical style of Baroque and Rococo architecture.

The whole baroque set of the Clérigos church-building-tower is his masterpiece, although he also showed his artistic genius in other works. Clérigos Tower as it is usually known became the emblem of Porto (ex-libris) of the city (I can't yet believe it was out of the seven Portuguese wonders .... voted recently).

But my beautiful city is full of works by Nicolau Nasoni. He endowed it with churches and houses based on the formula of a literal translation into granite of the complex ornament in his painting.

I leave you with this beautiful photo of the façade of the Misericórdia Church (1749) (Porto) copied from Cidade Surpreendente

0526 - Theodoric the Great dies (b. 0454).0711 - K'inich K'an Joy Chitam king of Palenque, disappears from history. He was probably taken prisoner by a rivalling city state.1158 - King Sancho III of Castile dies (b. 1134).1181 - Rolando Bandinelli (Pope Alexander III) dies.1334 - King Peter I of Castile was born (d. 1369). King of Castile (1349-1369).

1961 - Ladislao Kubala retires from fooball player.1961 - Charles Coburn dies (b. 1877). American actor.1962 - Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.1963 - Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders goes into operation.